Phonological Development

Phonological Development

• Phonological competence in young children takes time to acquire, and certain sounds are easier to articulate than others. For this reason young children often 'mispronounce' the sounds they are attempting to reproduce.

Slide 2

• An example of this is using a "t" instead of a "k" sound, e.g. pronouncing "cake" as "tate". This is known as substitution. Most 3- and 4-year-olds can say "p", "b," and "m" sounds easily because they can watch people's lips and see how the sounds are formed. Consonants such as "k" and "g" are hard for children under 5, because these sounds are produced at the back of the mouth, and children can't actually see how to make the sound.

Slide 3

• Other sounds that children may struggle with at age 3 include -
• "g" pronounced as "d," such as "dame" instead of "game"
• "f" pronounced as "p," such as "pish" instead of "fish"
• "ch" pronounced as a "sh," such as "wash" instead of "watch"
• "sh" pronounced as a "s," such as "sip" instead of "ship"
• Consonants in the middle of words left out, so "baseball" becomes "bayball"
• Words with more than one syllable become shortened or simplified, so "Emily" becomes "Memmy" or "Emmy"

Slide 4

• Sometimes the difficult in pronunciation has less to do with a particular letter sound than with the construction of the word itself. For instance, a child says "Daddy," so you know she can make a "d" sound, yet she pronounces "dog" as "gog". In fact, she's mispronouncing the word because the "g" sound comes right after the "d" sound. Since the "d" is pronounced in the front of the mouth and the "g" is in the back, saying "dog" may be hard for a 3-year-old.
• By age 4 she should manage this.

Slide 5

• Sounds are produced by air from the lungs passing across the vocal cords. The production of consonant sounds is affected by -
• The manner of articulation (how the airstream is controlled)
• The place of articulation (where in the mouth it occurs)
• If the sound is voiced or unvoiced (by vibrating or not vibrating the vocal chords)